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Health news

n/a Medicinal hullabaloo

How to solve the problem of ensuring privileged people with medicines?

The majority of experts believe that the strategy of the reform is absolutely reasonable. And the chief goal today is to establish order: to avoid tortures in huge queues, to reduce the time on drug prescription and to make the necessary medicine be in the chemist’s shop.

The problem is that the accomplishing of these three things depends on rather big quantity of organizations and people.

- The privileged people used to be ensured with medicines by means of regional budgets,- explained Boris Schpigel the chairman of the subcommittee in the Federation Council.- A list of drugs was fixed by the regions and even in the safe territories it included only 200 names.

Today this list includes 1800 names. A lot of these preparations privileged people can get only now. It’s obvious that the physicians have to improve their methods of work.

According to all data of the Ministry of Health and Social Development, during the two post-holiday weeks of January medical institutions in many regions wrote out more prescriptions than they did in the course of the previous year.

- Let’s make things clear, - Dmitry Reyhart the acting director of the pharmaceutical work attached to the Ministry of Health and Social Development says. - All these talks, that there are no medicines for privileged people in the regions, are nonsense. Of course some trades can be absent, but it doesn’t mean that there are no available means to treat people.

The representatives of the pharmaceutical industry, who take part in the federal project, don’t conceal uneasiness. They are practically accusing regional administrations in the attempt to freeze the program.

The most urgent question today is the problem of exceeded prices. Medicines are sold at lower prices in common drugstores. For a person in particular there’s no difference – he doesn’t pay for the medicine. But the government can’t remain indifferent to such things.

Irina Yurieva

Full text is available only in the Russian version.

n/a The prices at which medicines for privileged people are sold could be reconsidered in the course of the 1st quarter

The prices at which medicines for privileged people are sold and which have been approved by the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation on concordance with the Federal Rate Service (FRS) will probably be reconsidered in the course of the 1st quarter. It was announced today by the chief of FRS Sergey Novikov on the meeting of Duma Health Defense Committee.

In his report S. Novikov emphasizes, that already in January they have got several notifications: the prices of some medicines are exceeding the prices of the very same drugs, which are sold in common chemist’s shops.

Control on prices at which medicines for privileged people are sold is exercised by the Federal Health and Social Development Inspectorate Service. According to the chief councilor of the service Mikhail Getman, they have created special commissions, which accomplish monitoring in several regions of the country.

According to its information, only 8 medicinal preparations have been sold at exceeded prices. “If we get enumerate facts about the thing that medicines included into the federal list are frequently sold at lower prices in common drugstores, we’ll prepare a project on reconsidering the prices and probably reduce them”, concluded M. Getman.

Full text is available only in the Russian version.

n/a Ministers are patients. The problem of medicinal ensuring was discussed in the White House

The headmaster of the Ministry of Health and Social Development Mikhail Zurabov believes that one of the great problems in connection of the realization of the Act of Privileges is filling in prescription lists. According to him, it is caused by the weak computerization of the medical institutions.

The Director of the Department of Social Development and Environment Defense Sergey Kalashnikov informed of the cases when patients are dissatisfied with the huge queues to be examined by their physician and then they have to endure a terrible queue on the way to the registry.
Zurabov promised to think over the problem. And to start with, he suggested increasing the period of time of the consultation.

More and more often people complain of high prices, which actually exceed those in commercial drug-stores.

“We have the only way out – this way is closely connected with bringing the system of treatment to the order”, claimed Zurabov. Nobody has ever said or promised that the first months of the reform will be easily overcome.

The Ministry gets a lot of remarks on the prices of the drugs. If the same price is used for the selling of the medicine, the producers promise to reduce the price.

RIA “Novosti” states that Russian low-qualified medicinal import reached 100 million dollars in the year 2004. This information was introduced by the chairman of the subcommittee in the Federation Council attached to public health service and medical insuring Boris Schpigel.

He explained that this kind of import is delivered through the off shores.

According to Schpigel, 85 % of Russian medicine producers get ingredients this very way. Altogether such substances are low-grade.

“The production of medicinal ingredients doesn’t bring any profits, that’s why the necessary ingredients are imported particularly from China”, mentioned Schpigel. He added that international legislation prohibits deliveries from anyone but direct producers, and in Russia this norm in frequently being ignored.

Schpigel reported that at the moment the government prepared a bill, which introduces changes into the Act of medicines. One of the norms of the new bill prohibits import of the medicinal substances from anyone but direct producers. This bill may gain power in the course of 1 – 2 months.

n/a The Ministry of Health and Social Development will analyze the way of delivery of the medicines to privileged people

The payments from the Federal Budget got 14 million 442 thousand 298 federal privileged ones. These figures were introduces yesterday on the meeting concerning the realization of the Act of Privileges by the Minister of Health and Social Development Mikhail Zurabov.

While answering the question on the origin of the problems while ensuring the privileged people with medicines, the Minister declared that these problems are caused by some sluggish governors and unreliable providers. Speaking about the accusation (medicines at exceeded prices) the Minister mentioned that his department will put an end to such cases and control the way of medicine delivery to people.

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